Centering and Awareness: Say Hello to Your Body

I use centering as a part of my grounding practice, and throughout my day. Centering is bringing your focus inward. Every day our attention is drawn outward to the world around us, and our minds are bombarded with thoughts, observations, the stories we make up or tell ourselves, and so on and so forth. It’s no wonder so many of us feel anxious, drained, or like we’re living in our heads instead of our bodies.

Centering brings you back home to yourself. It clears your mind, puts you back in your body, and refocuses your awareness on your true nature, which is peaceful, loving, and joyful. The practice below is a simple way to start, and it begins with something most of us forget to do. Saying hello.

Say Hello to Your Body

Hello breath

Find a place to sit comfortably where you will be undisturbed for a few minutes. Take a few deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. Notice what it feels like to breathe in slowly. Pay attention to the feeling of the air moving through your nostrils and into and out of your lungs. Is the air cool and crisp? Are there scents carried with the breeze?

Hello breath.

Hello body

Start to notice how your body feels. Focus on what draws your attention first. Is it your legs because of the way you’re sitting? Feel the pressure points where they’re touching the chair, the ground, each other. Are you sitting outside? Notice the breeze on your face. Feel it move across the skin on your arms, lightly sweeping through, soft as a feather. Notice your back. Does it hurt from sitting hunched over? Do you need to stretch your back? Roll your shoulders and release tension? Roll and stretch your neck? Go through every part of your body. Not just the parts that caught your immediate attention. Notice how each part feels. Acknowledge and thank each part of the whole. Even the parts that hurt. Your body works hard to keep you alive and functioning. Do you treat it with kindness? Do you give it what it needs? Most of us don’t. We just expect it to keep going and we don’t notice things until they’re out of whack or hurting.

When you feel and focus on one part of your body, are you still aware of the other parts? Are you still aware of your breath? Turn your attention to your body as a whole. Bring your awareness to all of it all at once. This may take some practice. Once you get it, you’ll know. There is a deep stillness and peace that comes with noticing your body in this manner.

Hello body. Thank you. I love you.

Hello world around you

Turn your attention to the sounds around you. What do you hear? If you’re outside, do you hear the wind rustling the leaves on the trees? Hello wind. Hello trees. Do you hear a bird? A neighbor’s lawnmower? People talking? Don’t focus on what they’re saying, and don’t think about what is happening with the lawnmower. Just acknowledge the sound as it permeates the peaceful awareness you have of your body. Hello nature. Thank you. I love you.

Do the same thing if you’re indoors. Do you hear a fan or a refrigerator humming? A clock ticking? Is your family watching television in another room? Hello house. Thank you for providing shelter. I love you.

Tuning in

Now refocus your attention inward. Are you able to feel where your thoughts and emotions land? Were you irritated by hearing that lawnmower? Where did you feel the irritation in your body? There will be a place that isn’t just your mind. Did you feel love when you thought of your family in the other room? Where did that emotion land in your body? You will start to feel the subtle energies that affect your wellbeing when you start to tune into these things.

Carrying it with you

This heightened awareness of your body and how you’re feeling is crucial to maintaining spiritual sovereignty. Become very familiar with how you feel and how your energy feels. This will help with discernment and help you recognize when an energy that isn’t yours crosses your boundaries. Practice carrying this awareness with you as you go about your day. It won’t be easy at first. You will forget. But each time you remember, your practice will get better and your awareness will heighten.

Want More?

Centering is just one of the practices I recommend. You’ll find the others, including grounding and cord cutting, on my Daily Practices page.

And if you’ve been centering, grounding, and doing all the things, and something still feels stuck, it might be more than you can clear on your own. A free 20-minute consultation is always there if you want to talk it through.